{"doi":"10.1093/ntr/ntad094","title":"Retrospective and Real-time Measures of the Quantity of E-cigarette Use: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study","abstract":"INTRODUCTION: Quantifying e-cigarette use is challenging because of the wide variety of products and the lack of a clear, objective demarcation of a use event. This study aimed to characterize the difference between retrospective and real-time measures of the quantity of e-cigarette use and identify the covariates that may account for discrepancies between the two types of measures. METHODS: This study analyzed data from 401 college student e-cigarette users in Indiana and Texas who responded to a web survey (retrospective) and 7-day ecological momentary assessments (EMA) (real-time) on their e-cigarette use behavior, dependence symptomatology, e-cigarette product characteristics, and use contexts from Fall 2019 to Fall 2021. Generalized linear mixed models were used to model the real-time measures of quantity offset by the retrospective average quantity. RESULTS: Although the number of times using e-cigarettes per day seems to be applicable to both retrospective and real-time measures, the number reported via EMA was 8.5 times the retrospective report. E-cigarette users with higher e-cigarette primary dependence motives tended to report more daily nicotine consumption via EMA than their retrospective reports (ie, perceived average consumption). Other covariates that were associated with discrepancies between real-time and retrospective reports included gender, nicotine concentration, using a menthol- or fruit-flavored product, co-use with alcohol, and being with others when vaping. CONCLUSIONS: The study found extreme under-reporting of e-cigarette consumption on retrospective surveys. Important covariates identified to be associated with higher than average consumption may be considered as potential targets for future vaping interventions. IMPLICATIONS: This is the first study that characterizes the direction and magnitude of the difference between retrospective and real-time measures of the quantity of e-cigarette use among young adults-the population most likely to use e-cigarettes. An average retrospective account of vaping events per day may significantly underestimate e-cigarette use frequency among young adults. The lack of insight into the degree of consumption among users with heavy primary dependence motives illustrates the importance of incorporating self-monitoring into cessation interventions.","journal":"Nicotine & Tobacco Research","year":2023,"id":346257,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":12,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.8723,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":897365,"name":"Tzung-Shiang Ou","orcid":"0000-0002-7741-9681","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":368439,"name":"Hsien‐Chang Lin","orcid":"0000-0001-9151-2172","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":911402,"name":"Joon Kyung Nam","orcid":"0000-0002-5022-5801","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":410927,"name":"Megan E. Piper","orcid":"0000-0002-9876-5460","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":370096,"name":"Anne Buu","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":897364,"name":"James J. Yang","orcid":"0000-0003-0331-9706","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":36,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:11:48.317335Z","pmid":"37327251","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}